I’m responding to the significant front-page coverage given to LANL-related views on Oct. 21.

The vision of a new Manhattan project to address the clean and renewable energy needs of the nation is what Tom Udall would like to make a reality for LANL. With the last eight years or more of Republican innovations in privatization, however, the lab is superbly unsuited to compete for new business in growing fields such as energy research, climate modeling and basic NSF/NASA/DOE science research.

Reversing this legacy is the job of the new Congress and the next administration. Tom Udall plans to be the leader in reversing that legacy, moving LANL forward and building more supporters than just our own congressional delegation. LANL will return to the scientific pre-eminence it enjoyed before it became a one-trick nuclear weapons pony in the country’s mind. Tom Udall will lead the way.